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DOE Funds $7M for Solid-State Lighting Development

Photonics.comJun 2006
WASHINGTON, June 12, 2006 -- The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced it will provide a total of $7 million for solid-state lighting (SSL) product development to Color Kinetics Inc., Eastman Kodak Co., General Electric Global Research, Osram Sylvania Development Inc. and SRI International. The companies will share an average of 30 percent of the costs of their projects.

Color Kinetics, of Boston, will develop replacement lamps for 60-W incandescent light sources with a fourfold increase in efficacy, with a target of 80 lm/W. It will target package and system integration technology through the development of a novel hybrid-LED source that combines direct emission sources with phosphor-down converted emissions. A luminaire "houses" the lamp (source: incandescent bulb, possibly several) and other electrical parts and distributes light where it is needed. Color Kinetics will share 25 percent of the costs for to the 18-month project, which is valued at $1,125,452.

Eastman Kodak proposes to increase performance and durability of OLED (organic light-emitting diode) devices to 50 lm/W by focusing on light extraction efficiency enhancement, low-operating voltage materials and structures with novel layering techniques. Kodak will share 40 percent of the costs of the 24-month project, which has a total value of $1,945,473.

General Electric Global Research, based in Niskayuna, N.Y., will build on previous work that incorporates the use of novel nanophosphors to create white light from violet LEDs. Its goal is to create a LED lamp to replace incandescent bulbs that will be about as efficient as present fluorescent lamps, with comparable light color quality. It will share 35 percent of the costs for the 36-month project, which is valued at $3,718,430.

Sylvania Development (Beverly, Mass.) will address the problem that light is created inside an LED lamp but has a difficult time escaping from the lamp and other optical parts. Its goal is to enable as much of the generated light as possible to escape and to be put to good use. There are several methods to enhance the amount of light that escapes; Sylvania said it will seek to increase the external quantum efficiency by using remote phosphors and employing a multilayer thin-film coating technique to increase the probability of light escaping, with a target of 80 lm/W in the bulbs. The company will share 20 percent of the costs for the 24-month project, valued at $603,705.

SRI International (Menlo Park, Calif.) will develop a surface-cavity-injection process to increase the efficiency of OLEDs by channeling light out of the device, thereby reducing optical loss. The team goal is a fivefold increase in the external quantum efficiency over standard OLEDs, at twice the brightness. SRI will share 20 percent of the 36-month project costs. The project is valued at $2,607,966.

Energy Department Secretary Samuel W. Bodman said solid-state lighting has the potential to more than double the efficiency of general lighting systems, reducing overall US energy consumption and saving consumers money.

"Solid-state lighting is a key part of President Bush’s energy policy and the Department of Energy’s overall strategy to increase energy efficiency," he said. "Not only does this technology have the potential to greatly reduce lighting energy consumption in US buildings, it will also enhance our energy security."

Secretary Bodman made the funding announcement at a Community Power Alliance (CPA) Reliability Leadership Conference, where he spoke about electric reliability and the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

The unique attributes of SSL drive a need for a coordinated federal approach that encompasses research, development and commercialization support, the department said. DOE is also sponsoring lighting fixure design competitions such as Lighting for Tomorrow, is developing Energy Star criteria for SSL product and is working with standards organizations to coordinate and accelerate the development of test procedures and standards for SSL.